The Sign of Ouroboros
by gameloverx
Summary: A new prophecy has been proclaimed. Carter and Sadie find themselves in more trouble than they thought they could have met. A new evil is rising, and the only way to defeat it is to unite the gods. The problem: they don't want anything to do with each other. So our heroes set off to find the only object that can create war as easily as it can prevent it.


**Hi! I've actually had this idea for a long time. The crossovers I've read before didn't satisfy me in the least, so I thought I'd give it a go. This is actually something that I would imagine Rick would write if he actually decided to do a crossover, so naturally, I want to keep this as cannon as possible. Enjoy and review.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything except the plot.**

**P.S. I need a beta reader, like seriously. **

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Welcome to Brooklyn, Home of the Slaughtering Giant Rats.

Hi, Sadie Kane here! If you're listening to this, then you've probably heard of the multiple disasters that took place around the globe. The huge mess that occurred in Central Park and that big explosion in London were kind of our fault, sorry about that. Trust me, it could have been a whole lot worse. Still, I think we owe you an explanation about what happened.

[ Carter says that I'm not taking the situation seriously enough. Well, I think that it's better to give the audience a lighthearted start than scare the bloody hell out of 'em.]

You could say that it all started when a giant rat destroyed Central Park.

My mood wasn't very good that day, due to the fact that Carter and I had a fight. Again. These situations we getting more often than I liked, but I just couldn't help it. Plus, this fight turned out much more personal than the others.

It was a Sunday morning, eleven AM to be exact. Sunday mornings I usually spent in my room, curled up on my bed, listening to music and drinking Ribena in gallons at a time. Training at Brooklyn House started at one, so I had plenty of time to lazy around and do nothing.

This was going to be that kind of morning, if Carter hadn't ruined everything.

I was just preparing to have my weekly do-nothing hours, and was just on my way to the kitchen to get a huge tub of ice cream from the freezer, when I overheard a strange conversation coming from the living room. Curiosity getting the best of me, I poked my head through the doorway, the tub of ice cream still in my hands. The conversation was apparently between my brother Carter and his girlfriend Zia. The two were standing around the coffee table, arguing.

"You can't leave just like that, Carter! What about the trainees?" Zia cried out furiously.

Carter shook his head and pressed his fingers to his temples, probably trying to clear away a headache. "Do you think I _want _to go? You think I'm not tired of all this First Nome nonsense?"

"Then why _are _you going?" Zia countered.

"Amos told me to."

" '_Amos told me to',"_ Zia mimicked, showing the quotes with her fingers. "Then tell him that you're busy! For gods' sake, you're not a child."

"But he said that it was important!" my brother exclaimed, throwing his hands into the air.

That was my cue to make myself known. I stepped through the doorway and folded my arms, glaring angrily at Carter. "What's important? Where are you planning to go?"

He jumped in surprise and turned to face me, stuttering awkwardly. "S-Sadie! What are you...um...doing here?"

I raised an eyebrow. "I live here. Now, you didn't answer my question."

"Amos contacted him earlier this morning. Called him up for another meeting." Zia replied instead.

I glared at my brother. "Another one? This is like the third time this month! Doesn't Amos ever get tired or something?"

Carter bit his lip. "He _is _tired of them, and so am I. Look, I'm sorry, but Amos said that this one was very important and I'll only be gone for a week and-"

"A WEEK?" I practically screeched. Taking a deep breath and counting to ten, I tried again, in a threateningly calm voice that tended to scare the _ba _out of misbehaving younger trainees. "A week. You do realize what Thursday is, right?" Carter blinked, completely clueless. "Thursday is March 17th."

Another blink, before realization spread across his face. "Oh! Of course! I..." Once again, he was at a loss of words. No 'sorry, Sadie, for forgetting' or 'I can't believe I forgot! I'm such a jerk'. Just an 'Oh!'

This wasn't the first time that he completely ignored my birthday. The same thing happened last year. Granted, we were kind of facing the end of the world back then, so I forgave him. Now, though, the situation was pretty calm. True, some problems started to arise in the House of Life that my uncle Amos discussed frequently with my brother, but other than that, it was peaceful. He should have at least remembered, and I'm not even talking about a present, just an acknowledgment. But, of course, even _that _was apparently too much to ask for. [ And _yes, _I'm still mad at you, Carter.]

Carter averted his gaze to the floor, too shameful to make eye contact with me. Seeing that this particular topic was not getting us anywhere, I quickly changed the subject. "So when you were going to tell me that you were leaving?" He swallowed, still staring at the floor silently.

"You weren't going to, were you?" Zia finally decided to join our little talk. She shook her head, as if not believing what she herself was saying.

Carter peeled his eyes off the floor and said: "I'm sorry."

This was the last straw. I just couldn't take it anymore, I was sick. My stomach was churning with rage, the tub of ice cream that I was still holding shaking in my hands. Carter was barely around now. He was supposed to be the older brother, the one who takes care of me, as cheesy and horrible as _t__hat_ sounded. Instead, he forgot that I was even there. And yes, I felt selfish and bratty thinking that, but it just felt so bloody unfair. So, I decided to use my most practiced method of dealing with annoying older brothers: I gave him the cold shoulder.

"Fine, whatever!" I spat, shooting him a what I considered to be a deadly glare. "Go ahead! I won't stop you. In fact, it'll be a whole lot better without you pestering me anyway!" I turned around and stalked out of the room, feeling Zia's concerned stare and Carter's shocked one in the back of my neck.

My brother's voice echoed down the hall as he ran after me. "Wait! Sadie! Look, I'm sorry, okay?" I stormed past the numerous trainees, not paying any attention to their 'what's wrong, Sadie?' and 'are you okay?'. _A little to late for an apology, brother dear, _I thought, trying to ignore the light stinging in my eyes or the giant lump that had formed in my throat.

I ran out into the street, feeling like I needed some fresh air to clear my head. Picking a random direction, I started jogging down the road. My thoughts bounced around in my head like a bouncy ball. Carter's frantic apologies had already died down, but it was then that I started thinking if I was too harsh on him. The poor boy's hurt look was still stuck in my mind, the way he reacted, maybe I shouldn't have given him such a hard time...after all, this was _Carter _we're talking about, the _softie _of the family. He was the one that tended to take people's reactions too seriously.

Then I realized: why should I care? If he was so afraid of hurting my feelings, why then why did he forget to tell me that he was leaving? I shouldn't care! I'm not the one who's supposed to be apologizing. Heck, I _never _apologize!

Then again, he looked so bloody _tired. _The dark circles under his eyes, the way he held himself: like a deflated balloon. With his hair all messed up and the hastily thrown on clothes, he looked like a homeless person. He could have been standing along the highway with all those creepy hobos with signs and would have fit right in. Ugh! How was I going to fix this stupid thing? Should I apologize? Should I go back and let _him _apologize? What do I do?

I was so preoccupied in sulking and trying to figure out how to fix this problem, it took me a while to realize that I had run quite a long distance and was standing in some random park. I located a bench and set out towards it; my legs were sore from the run and I was breathing heavily. Right now I wanted to do nothing but collapse on that pretty wooden bench and stretch my tired muscles.

I sat down next to some blonde bloke, making sure to keep as much distance as possible between us. I was definitely not in the mood for human interaction right now.

Careful as to not make eye contact, I glanced at my neighbor. With his tan skin and tall, muscular complexion, he looked like he belonged on a surf board in California, not in a random park in New York. But honestly, I didn't care that much, it wasn't my business, after all. I turned around, pointedly ignoring his unnerving stare, and prayed to the gods that he wouldn't try to start a conversation. I _really _was not in the mood for a conversation. I just hoped that the _he_ would realize it.

"Hey, you okay?"

I groaned mentally. Of course! Why in the world would I think that luck was actually on my side? I turned towards the speaker and forced myself not to glare _too hard. _"What do you think?"

"Just wondering. You look pretty worn out." he said, shooting me a smile full of perfect while teeth.

I realized that I probably did look like a wreck: a sweaty, tired, dirty wreck with puffy red eyes. The bloke was just helpful enough to point that out. Still, I didn't appreciate people bugging me about my problems. Heck, I didn't even know this guy. "So sorry, but I don't talk to strangers." I shot back.

Surfer-boy just smiled, as if my comment had amused him somehow. He held his hands up, as if surrendering. "Just thought that I could help."

I rolled my eyes at him. "Yes, like I usually solve my problems by asking some random pretty-boy I found on the street for advice."

The 'pretty-boy' just laughed. It wasn't a cruel laugh, more like an I'm-laughing-because-I-think-that-it-will-make-you-feel-better kind of laugh. And unfortunately, it did. I took another look at the boy that I was sitting next to. He looked much younger than I previously thought: about fifteen or sixteen. He had a strange tiny scar on his lip that made me wonder if he had been in street fights before. His eyes unnerved me the most. Hey held a sort of power to them, as if the boy could reduce me to dust just by looking at me. I had only seen this kind of vibe once before, in a being that was much more powerful than a mortal. Seeing the same power in the kid sitting next to me kind of freaked me out.

"So," I tried to shake off my uneasiness. "What are you doing in Brooklyn? You don't look like you're from here."

"You don't either." he countered.

"Let me guess, it's my accent, isn't it?"

"Yeah."

"Well too bad, I asked the question first."

The boy shook his head, as if in disbelief, then answered "I was going to see some friends, and sort of stopped here for a while." Yeah right.

"That sounds extremely unconvincing."

He shrugged, and we sat in silence for a while, both of us staring into nowhere. Across from our bench, I could see a couple of kids running around on the grass, throwing clumps of dirt at each other and laughing. A group of women that seemed to be their mothers sat at a picnic table nearby, chatting and gossiping. Compared to Manhattan, which I had visited once or twice before, Brooklyn seemed like a much more peaceful place to be in, without all the traffic and noise. It was one of the reasons why I liked living here. It made you forget sometimes that you had a bunch of crazy problems that the mortals didn't even know about.

"I'm Jason, by the way."

I turned to see the boy, now dubbed Jason, smiling amiably, his hand held out in a handshake. I took it, a small smirk forming on my lips, "Sadie Kane."

Our little conversation was interrupted by a sudden noise coming from the bushes behind us. It sounded like...a growl? Turned, and saw a stray cat hissing at us from on top of a tree. Huh, maybe it didn't like handshakes?

Jason stood up, a determined scowl forming on his face. His right hand was clutching something in the pocket of his jeans, his left positioned in front of me protectively. "Stay here." he commanded, cautiously approaching the feline.

I snorted at him. Honestly, as if the guy never saw angry cats before. "It's just a stupid cat. Don't get so worked up."

Jason shook his head. "It's not just a cat."

"Oh really?" I raised an eyebrow, and got down on my knees in front of the creature. "Come here kitty kitty!" I used my best cat voice on it, the type of voice I would use on my own cat — Muffin, otherwise known as the goddess Bast. If that worked on the queen of cats, then I saw no reason why it wouldn't work in this situation, too.

It didn't work. Looking back at it, it was a pretty idiotic thing to do. [ No comments from you, Carter!] Unfortunately, I realized too late what kind of surprise I was in for.

The cat let out one last hiss, and leaped off the tree branch. It landed on the spot of grass right in front of us, and _grew._ The orange tone of its fur faded into a sickly gray one. The body expanded right in front of my eyes, until it was the size of a jeep. It's snout extended from a flat, feline one to a long, toothed...rat? The tail shed all of its fur and stretched out until it was the same length as the creature itself. It's red, beady eyes glared at us, the sharp razor-like teeth just waiting to tear both of us to shreds.

That was the time when I realized just how stupid I was.

The rat-thing lunged.


End file.
